US stocks tumbled today with tariff fears returning to Wall Street, as Nvidia (NVDA) revealed costly new curbs on chip exports to China and Fed Chair Jerome Powell warned of the challenging impacts to come from the uncertainty around President Trump's trade policy.
Nvidia is now caught in the crossfire of the US-China trade war. Shares fell about 7% after the company revealed that the US government has imposed new restrictions on its chip exports to China. The company said the move would result in $5.5 billion in charges and they will fully comply with the laws.
The S&P 500 (SPY) dropped more than 2.2% while Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ) fell over 3%. The selling escalated in the afternoon while Powell said during a speech in Chicago that the central bank will "wait for greater clarity" before considering any interest rate adjustments. He said he expects Trump’s tariffs to generate "higher inflation and slower growth." This was not what many wanted to hear as investors were waiting for a 50 point rate cut amid the recent economic turmoil.
From my perspective we need clarity on tariffs the uncertainty is what is spooking markets. People are pulling back with their spending habits and I'm having conversations with friends who are preparing for layoffs. I hoped to only have one economic crisis in my lifetime but this is heating up to be another generational event we will have to endure. I tend to be short in these conditions and I exited 2 trades today when SPY hit $520. I Broke even with one which I thought I was going to take a good loss on and made decent profit on the other. I've been able to keep all my portfolio in the profit YTD which has not been easy...
